Unfortunately, I think that the conflict between wanting to help the environment while still wanting to visit your loved ones is a complicated matter that isn't discussed very often. For some context, I have a pretty tight-knit extended family that I have visited quite often recently, especially as my older relatives have been dealing with medical issues. Although I was aware that I have been traveling by air more than usual recently, I was pretty surprised to see that transportation was by far my largest area of carbon emissions (I emitted approximately 4,000 kgs while the average person in my area emits 2,557 kgs) . I already expected my transportation score to be relatively high from the 2-3 days a week when I drive to school instead of taking the bus or need to drive to after school activities but my emissions from airplanes were by far the highest of the entire survey. This made me question what side to take when deciding whether to spend time with my family as I still care about the environment and don’t want to be responsible for emitting such a large amount of carbon dioxide for what some might consider a “want” instead of a “necessity”.

I also started to wonder whether the carbon I emit through transportation could be balanced out if my home, food and purchases emissions could remain relatively low. According to the survey, my food (744 kgs) and purchase (309 kgs) emissions were substantially lower than the average citizen in my region. I think that this is because I have a mostly vegetarian diet and no longer make as many clothes purchases due to my school uniform.

In your opinion, do you think that missing out on family memories is a price we need to pay in order to combat climate change or do you think that there are alternative methods to balance out/limit our carbon emissions?